Work to begin this week on Edmonds link to Interurban bike/walking trail
Lake Ballinger neighborhood residents living along or near the Edmonds segment of the Interurban Trail — running from the intersection of Highway 104 and 76th Avenue West to 228th Street in Mountlake Terrace — should be prepared for construction-related activities as the project gears up this week.
According to Bertrand Haus, City of Edmonds Transportation Engineer, residents may notice construction trucks and equipment being moved into place starting Wednesday. Erosion control work, including installation of catch basin protection, will start on Thursday. Roadway excavation is scheduled to begin next Thursday, July 21, with hours from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The Interurban Trail Project will complete the missing Edmonds link of the 30-mile regional trail that runs from North Seattle to Everett.
The $2.4 million project — with $1.3 million coming from state and federal grant funds — is scheduled to be completed “on a 120-day construction cycle,” Haus said. Adding time for weather and other unexpected delays, work is likely to be finished in early 2012.
A construction groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for the corner of 76th Avenue West and McAleer Way at 10 a.m. next Tuesday, July 19.
Currently, bicyclists who follow the Interurban Trail north from Shoreline are directed along 76th Avenue West, where there are no official bicycle lanes. When the Edmonds link is complete, cyclists and pedestrians will have the choice of continuing along 76th, where a bike lane will be added both east and westbound. (Parking will be alternated between the east and west sides of 76th to accommodate the bike lane, which will be tapered in and out around the parking.)
Those who want a more scenic (and slower) route can leave 76th at the PUD crossing near McAleer Way, and will be able to take a breather at Ballinger Station, a landscaped rest area for users of the Interurban Trail. Highlights include a drinking fountain, an open shelter with a park bench and two interpretive historical panels that tell the story of the Interurban Trolley Line, which ran from Seattle to Everett until 1939.
A spur trail heading west from this location will also be built to Mathey Ballinger Park, using the PUD crossing at 76th Avenue West with a 12-foot trail through what is now power line right-of-way.
The McAleer Way entrance will be marked with bollards and then follow a 12-foot-wide paved trail that will be built along the power line right-of-way that runs between homes just off McAleer, rejoining the street at 74th Avenue West. (A marked crosswalk and a four-way stop will be added here to slow down vehicle traffic.)
The trail will continue lakeside along 74th Avenue West, which will be paved with new asphalt and striped with a walking area for pedestrians on the east side and shared use for cars and bicycles on the west. The roadway currently varies in width from 12 feet to 20 feet, so the goal will be to widen it to 20 feet. Retaining walls will built along the route as necessary to protect trail users.
Three sets of speed cushions (wide enough to slow cars but narrow enough to allow speedy passage of fire trucks), will be installed along this portion of the 74th as a safety measure.
In the final section of the Edmonds trail, users will be directed along a now-unpaved portion of 74th (commonly referred to as an alley). That street will be paved and widened from 12 feet to 15 feet to accommodate access by bicyclists, local residents with driveways on the street, and garbage trucks. From there, the trail will exit to a crosswalk at 228th Street Southwest, and rejoin the already-completed Mountlake Terrace portion.
Residents along the construction route have already been contacted about any impacts the construction may have on their property, including road widening and retaining wall construction, Haus said.
About two dozen elected officials, city employees and Lake Ballinger-area neighbors turned out Tuesday morning for the official construction groundbreaking for the Interurban Trail Project that will complete the missing Edmonds link of the 30-mile regional trail that runs from North Seattle to Everett.
The $2.4 million project, which will extend from the intersection of Highway 104 and 76th Avenue West to 228th Street in Mountlake Terrace, is expected to be complete by early 2012 or possibly sooner, said City Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Director Carrie Hite.
Among those attending were Tim Manimtim and Aaron Powell, who work at Electrocom near the Edmonds/Lynnwood border and take regular lunchtime runs along the current 74th Avenue West route that follows the Edmonds side of Lake Ballinger. Dressed in running clothes, Manimtim and Powell said they had heard about the groundbreaking and decided to run to the ceremony.
The two expressed enthusiasm for the upgrades to the current 74th Avenue West roadway that follows the lake, which will be paved with new asphalt and striped with a walking area for pedestrians on the east side and shared use for cars and bicycles on the west. The roadway currently varies in width from 12 feet to 20 feet, so the goal will be to widen it to 20 feet .
In addition, a gravel-filled portion of 74th (commonly referred to as an alley) further north will also be paved and widened from 12 feet to 15 feet to accommodate access by bicyclists, local residents with driveways on the street, and garbage trucks.
“It’s nice when you don’t have to run on gravel,” Manimtim said.
Long-time Lake Ballinger residents Doug and Sherri Hortin, whose home overlooks the trail, said they are delighted that the long-anticipated project is finally being built. “We’ve lived here for over 30 years and we’ve heard people talk about it (the trail extension) for 30 years,” Doug Hortin said. “It’s exciting. It will enhance the neighborhood.”
The ceremony, held at the future site of the trail’s Ballinger Station entrance at 76th Avenue West and McAleer Way, featured brief remarks by Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper, State Department of Transportation representative Sam Schuyler and construction officials. In addition, Councilmember Steve Bernheim was in attendance, riding his bicycle to the event from downtown Edmonds.
Calling it an “exciting day for our City,” Cooper noted that just a week ago, Edmonds officials joined Sound Transit in the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Sounder commuter train station on the Edmonds waterfront.
“Today we’re breaking ground for a bicycle and pedestrian trail, and that’s just one more example of the City of Edmonds’ commitment to complete streets and complete transportation access, so that our transportation infrastructure is accessible to everyone: cars, transit, bicyclists, pedestrians, people with disabilities,” Cooper said.
The mayor also noted that “a large portion” of the project funding came from state and federal grant dollars, including $577,000 from the State of Washington Recreation and Conservation Office and $750,000 from a federal congestion mitigation and air quality program.
And Cooper cited the asphalt trail’s pervious surface that will protect nearby Lake Ballinger from additional storm water runoff, adding that the project incorporate a large storm water vault with a capacity of 70,000 gallons ”so we can separate oils and sediment from the water and make sure we do our best to get clean water into Lake Ballinger as the water runs off the trail.”